Imagine traveling to Ireland and suddenly having to drive on the left side of the road. The brain, trained for right-side driving, becomes overburdened trying to suppress the old rules while simultaneously focusing on the new rules<\/strong>, said Hans Schroder, primary researcher on the study.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so much conflict in your brain,\u201d said Schroder, \u201cthat when you make a mistake like forgetting to turn on your blinker you don\u2019t even realize it and make the same mistake again. What you learned initially is hard to overcome when rules change.\u201d<\/p>\n The study, in the research journal Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience<\/em>, is one of the first to show how the brain responds to mistakes that occur after rules change.<\/p>\n Study participants were given a computer task that involved recognizing the middle letter in strings such as \u201cNNMNN\u201d or \u201cMMNMM.\u201d If \u201cM\u201d was in the middle, they were to press the left button; if \u201cN\u201d was in the middle, they were to press the right. After 50 trials, the rules were reversed so the participants had to press the right button if \u201cM\u201d was in the middle and the left if \u201cN\u201d was in the middle.<\/p>\n Participants made more repeated errors when the rules were reversed, meaning they weren\u2019t learning from their mistakes. In addition, a cap measuring brain activity showed they were less aware of their errors. When participants did respond correctly after the rules changed, their brain activity showed they had to work harder than when they were given the first set of rules.<\/p>\n \u201cWe expected they were going to get better at the task over time,\u201d said Schroder, a graduate student in MSU\u2019s Department of Psychology. \u201cBut after the rules changed they were slower and less accurate throughout the task and couldn\u2019t seem to get the hang of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Continually making these mistakes in the work environment can lead to frustration, exhaustion and even anxiety and depression<\/strong>, said Jason Moser, assistant professor of psychology and director of MSU\u2019s Clinical Psychophysiology Lab.<\/p>\n \u201cThese findings and our past research suggest that when you have multiple things to juggle in your mind \u2013 essentially, when you are multitasking \u2013 you are more likely to mess up<\/strong>,\u201d Moser said. \u201cIt takes effort and practice for you to be more aware of the mistakes you are missing and stay focused.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to Schroder and Moser, co-researchers include Erik Altmann, associate professor of psychology, and master\u2019s student Tim Moran.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Michigan State University press release: For the human brain, learning a new task when rules change can be a surprisingly difficult process marred by repeated mistakes, according to… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[42,18,19,12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5318"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5318"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5320,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5318\/revisions\/5320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/Brain6.jpg\" "\\"brain\\"")
For the human brain, learning a new task when rules change can be a surprisingly difficult process marred by repeated mistakes<\/strong>, according to a new study by Michigan State University psychology researchers.<\/p>\n